When The Dead Rise (Book 1): The Outbreak

by Fraser, D. K.

  Benny caught it in midair then stepped into the living room where Alice was sitting up on the couch staring at the window with the blanket pulled up and wrapped around her. He crept over to the window and peered out from behind the curtain.

  “You going out there? With that?” Alice asked him from the couch. He nodded, trying to focus on the street outside. It was dark with only two dim street lights lighting up the road. He saw some movement right in front of the house in the middle of the road. He could make out some shape on the ground moving slightly.

  Opening the front door slowly to not make too much sound he then crept low outside making his way to the street. As he got to his gate his could see two dark shapes on the ground. He could hear a wet, grunting, slobbering sound. Looking closely, squinting his eyes he could make out two different shapes. One looked like lady laying on the ground not really moving. The other appeared to be a man with his back to him crouched over the lady. Benny knew he had to make this quick, quiet and couldn’t hesitate. In one fluid motion Benny leapt over the small gate then sprinted towards the two. The man on top of the woman must have heard him as the slobbering stopped.

  Benny could make out the woman’s face pretty good as he ran towards them. Whoever this lady was she was dead with a lifeless gaunt look twisted onto her face. The empty eyes were looking in his direction but hadn’t moved since he’d got to the gate. As the man's head turned mid feast towards Benny it was too late. Benny didn’t change direction or hesitate to swing the axe as hard as he could. The man’s face was empty and covered in blood with glassy white eyes staring at Benny as the axe came slicing across the man’s temple. It felt like hitting a baseball with one of those mini bats Benny thought to himself. It sliced through the man’s temple, sending blood and pieces of bone flying in all directions. It made a wet dull sound as it took out the corner of the man's skull. The man fell at an awkward angle towards the ground and landed with a wet slap on the asphalt. Benny just stood there breathing heavily with blood dripping from the axe.

  He was waiting for the man to move or try and get back up. Instead the man just lay there next to the women both lifeless, only the man was missing a corner of his face and skull.

  Glancing down at the woman he hoped he could get a better look and maybe recognize the lady, but he didn’t. He knew most of his immediate neighbors and recognized the rest that lived in the next few streets, but he didn’t recognize this lady. He felt a kind of relief that she wasn’t someone he knew then at the same time this also worried him. Since coming home from the rehab center, the only immediate neighbors he’d seen had been Alice.

  He looked over so see Marcus and Alice both in the doorway. Marcus began walking out of the house towards him, but he put his hand up. Stopping in his tracks he could tell Marcus was looking at the bodies at his feet. Luckily the lighting outside wasn’t great so he could see any of the gruesome details he had.

  “Marcus…go back inside, I’ll be in in a minute. There could be more of them,” he said trying to hold it together. Alice walked down and put her arm around Marcus’s shoulder to pull him back towards the house. As the two headed back inside he turned and looked down the street but there was nothing just eerie silence. He wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or bad thing. He knew the best thing they could do was just follow the steps that had been on the news and hold out till morning. The news had stated that FEMA and local authorities would be stepping in to restore law and order. He knew firsthand from the old folk’s home that FEMA weren’t here to help. If anything, they were here to contain this thing by any means necessary.

  After a few moments he walked back inside to find both Marcus and Alice in the living room. The TV was on, but it was just the same message now with no news presenter narration or change in image. AVOID, DENY, DEFEND were still in big bold letters on the screen with a message at the bottom saying the local authorities are working hard to get the situation under control.

  Benny was beginning to sense Marcus’s frustration at the situation but before he could say anything Marcus blurted out, “I don’t understand?” Marcus began looking around the room. “We’re supposed to just sit here and wait… all this has happened so fast and we’re just stuck in limbo with no more information that what we’re getting,” Marcus’s face was red with anger.

  “We just need to get some rest and tomorrow if we don’t get answers, we’ll go find some ourselves,” Benny said reassuringly but saw Marcus roll his eyes.

  “How are we going to do that? Where should we go? Because according to you those FEMA guys aren’t really that friendly,” Marcus said like a bickering spouse.

  “We don’t need to go to Battleground, the news said there was a FEMA camp being set up at the school over by Jake’s” He fired back.

  “Good idea, we can check on Jake and his family too…they’re probably just as freaked out as us” Alice said worryingly. Alice had been friends with Jake longer than he had.

  “One thing though, if we go, we agree we’re not going with FEMA anywhere or letting them try and take us” he said looking at them both in the eyes.

  Marcus nodded but he could sense apprehension from Alice and could understand why so he tried to explain his doubts about FEMA’s real intentions.

  “Look these people will kill us if we don’t cooperate and today it seemed like they were more concerned with quarantining everybody than helping anyone sick or needing it,” he said, hoping to get how he felt across.

  Alice nodded, “We’re not going to do anything against our will…I agree…so before we go, we’re getting all the ammo and guns from my place.” Alice said.

  Benny nodded feeling confident in what they had planned. “Sounds good, let's get what sleep we can and then pack up early,” he said.

  Nick

  Nick lay there exhausted, staring at the ceiling of the hotel room. He’d been awake all night just lying there. He originally wanted to get some sleep maybe just a couple of hours but that didn’t happen. Not with everything that was going on inside of his head. So much had been running through his mind all night. From his wife and baby girl to how crazy people had been last night.

  The homeless guy being shot and seeing the two bodies on the ground below his hotel had really disturbed him, what was the world coming to?

  The noise of what was going on in downtown Seattle had kept him awake, too. Sirens had been pretty much a constant all night then there were gunshots. He’d heard glass smashing, metal grinding as cars hit each other. It had been a long night, but Nick forced himself not to go to the window as he knew there was nothing he could do.

  He hadn’t heard any sirens in a little bit, and it was starting to get light outside. He knew the first train was around 7:00 am. So, he figured he should probably get to the station before it opened. He needed to get in then exchange his ticket as quickly as possible. The sooner he was on his way home to his girls the better. He sat up and swung his legs off the edge of the bed.

  Nick had laid in his clothes all night and still felt a groggy from his lack of sleep. Getting up, he walked over to the window rubbing his tired heavy eyes. Opening up the blinds, he looked outside to check for any signs of what had gone on last night. What he’d heard all night definitely hadn’t prepared him for what he saw outside. There was a haze of smoke lingering between the buildings with dark plumes of smoke rising up in the distance. He looked down and saw the street below littered with trash, glass, and even a car had mounted the sidewalk. The car’s hood was smoking but there was no one around it. There was no traffic at all, and he laughed to himself.

  He pulled out the business card of the cabby who’d brought him here. The streets were a mess, so he didn’t want to risk getting swept up in any rioting or protesting. The only focus he had was getting home. He dialed the number; it rang then someone picked up.

  “’Ello?” boomed the loud familiar cabby’s voice.

  “Hey! Hi, it’s Nick the guy from yesterday, are you working?” he asked, not sure i
f it was just the immediate downtown area in tatters or the rest of Seattle, too.

  “I always work, my friend, no matter how much shit storm it is...” the cabby said.

  There was a pause “-but I still don’t know who you are?” the cabby asked.

  Nick thought to himself, he had not given the cabbie his name.

  “It’s the grilled cheese guy!” Nick said with a small smile to himself. He could tell the cabby knew who he was when the man let out that big deep laugh.

  “I’m at the hotel and need to get to the train station as soon as possible,” he told him.

  The cabby was still laughing to himself “Of course, Mr. Cheese,” the man laughed. “It’s pretty crazy right now but I will be there in ten to fifteen minutes, I honk horn.” the cabby told him then hung up.

  Nick pulled some jerky out and started to snack on it. As he did, he gave his duffle bag a once over, then his EDC bag. He knew if things got sticky the EDC bag would get him out of a lot of situations and keep him safe. It was good, he thought, as after laying there all-night hearing what had been going on outside, he knew he should be ready for anything. It was good, so he buckled the one strap over the front of his chest. Grabbing his duffle bag, he headed for the hotel room door. Opening the door, he almost took out a housekeeper. The small lady was pushing a housekeeping cart past his room,

  “Sorry!” he exclaimed as he slipped past the cart raising his arms to avoid hitting it. The small Hispanic lady give out a sigh, glaring at him. The lady muttered something in Spanish then turned to knock on the door next to Nick’s room. He walked towards the elevators and pushed the call button.

  As he waited, he could hear the lady go from a light knock to pounding on the door. Wasting your time, he thought as the lady called out, “Room service!” Then as he heard her opening the door, she let out a horrific shriek. Startled, he turned to see the woman backing up with her hands in the air screaming in terror!

  He moved away from the elevator towards the rooms so he could see what was scaring the housemaid so bad. He reached out his hand to grab her shoulder as he walked towards the room. Then he saw him or it in the room lying on the ground wrapped in a shower curtain thrashing about. It was a person laying halfway through the shattered glass bathroom door and into the hotel room. The maid fell to the ground hysterically screaming. Nick could tell it was too entwined in the curtain and caught on the glass in the door frame to get to her. Torn flesh was caught and ripped from its abdominal area in the bathroom door frame. A huge spike of glass was impaled through its leg and shower curtain. He bent down and put his hands on the housemaid’s shoulders.

  “C’mon, get up!” he barked, helping her up. Looking at the person entwined in the shower curtain he was shocked. It was a guy who must have been in his thirties or forties. Even though the guy was wrapped in the curtain he could see dried red splotches of blood that had bled through. These looked like they were from the cuts all over his body from the glass.

  The man’s face was lacerated open with dried blood all over his face. He had obviously been in there for a while. After a few snaps of its jaws and grasping at the air with splintered glass covered arms, its head fell to the ground, Nick recognized this as the thump he had been hearing which meant this guy had been like this for at least twenty-four hours.

  Nick helped the maid towards the elevator, the door was opened and they both got in. The maid was standing with her hands over her face crying and talking hysterically in Spanish, Nick put his duffle bag on the ground. As he began hitting the “L” for lobby button he wiped a film of sweat from his forehead.

  “What the fuck was that?!” he shouted out in the elevator pounding his fist on the elevator wall. He was prepared for a lot of things but not for what he had just seen…that man had been in that shower curtain stuck in that door frame for over twenty-four hours! The guy should have bled out from all those cuts from falling through the glass, but he was just lying there like a possessed, half dead zombie trying to get to the maid.

  The elevator dinged as the doors opened to the lobby, grabbing his bag he put his arm around the maid and the two walked out into the lobby. It was deathly silent with not even anyone at the check in desk.

  The maid darted away from him, heading behind the check-in desk pushing a door open to what must have been a staff only area. Nick was about to call out to her when he saw his cab pull up at high speed and screech to a halt. The cabby pounded on the horn; it was loud with how silent the street was outside. He turned and headed out and as he stepped out into the city, he couldn’t believe how quiet it was. There were no cars honking or sirens filling the air. He wasn’t sure if this was a good or a bad thing. The cabby got out and flashed Nick his big pearly smile.

  “You miss me, Mr. Grilled Cheese, huh?” The cabby chuckled before opening the passenger door for Nick. The cabby looked around then got back in the car.

  “You know what's going on?” Nick asked him to jump in the car. He was hoping to get more answers on what was going on downtown, but the cabby shrugged his shoulders.

  “I told you, man” the cabby began. “People are going crazy, says on news to avoid people who are acting nuts,” the cabby laughed.

  Nick wasn't sure what the man found so funny, but he was shaking. The cabby’s attitude kind of calmed him a bit.

  “Train station?” the cabby asked, and Nick nodded staring back at the hotel. “Might have to go the long way, the army and police are blocking off parts of downtown but will try get you there in time for train,” the cabby said with a wild look in his eyes. Then the cab pulled out with an ear-piercing screech of rubber on asphalt.

  As the taxi drove up the hill, Nick was looking down the side streets. He could see people scurrying across the empty roads. There were broken windows here and there but nothing that gave away how dire the situation was. As they got to the top of a hill and turned, Nick looked at the view overlooking downtown. It looked trashed; he could see some plumes of smoke but there were no sirens so who was fighting the fires?

  “Fuck ass!” the cabby blurted out as the cab slammed to a halt. The road was blocked ahead with barriers and two armed soldiers waving at them to turn around. The cabby turned and looked past Nick out the rear window. The cab was slammed into reverse and it spun around, causing Nick to slide in the seats. As they headed back the way they had come, he gripped his EDC bag tight.

  As they headed back down the hill, Nick was noticing signs he’d missed when they drove that way.

  They looked like the ones used on the freeway with lit up instructions, as they passed one it read:

  “FEMA Shelter & Emergency Medical Services located by waterfront aqueduct,” they had gotten on the scene fast, Nick thought to himself. Usually FEMA is late to the party, but they seemed to be on top of it this time. As they got closer to the train station and nearer the waterfront, the streets were starting to get busier. There were homeless people pushing carts and families with cases heading towards the waterfront like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

  “Wow! Worse than earlier,” the cabby said, honking the horn at people who were walking in the middle of the street. They turned off to a side street and Nick could see the train station a couple of blocks ahead of them. As they pulled up there was a crowd at the doors with security guarding the door pushing people back. He could see people waving cash at the security, trying to push a way through. He watched as the guards just pushed the people back, keeping the entryway secure. There must be thirty or forty people, Nick thought to himself. The cabby mounted the sidewalk with the right side of the taxi. Nick looked at the cabby in the rearview mirror then nodded his approval.

  “That was a quick trip, Mr. Grilled Cheese! I hope you make it home safe, hopefully all this will be over soon, and you’ll be back to visit Seattle again,” the cabby said, upbeat, tapping the meter.

  “It’s Nick and I kinda doubt that,” he said looking at the fare. It was more than double what it had been the day before. The cabby must hav
e caught the expression on his face.

  “Hazard pay! Been a crazy morning…Nick.”

  Nick smiled “Yeah, I get it, thanks,” he said, throwing him the fare plus an extra fifteen.

  “Good luck, Nick,” the cabbie said smiling as Nick got out. Nick half smiled then some people from the crowd came rushing towards the cab pushing past him.

  Nick got to the back of the crowd at the train station entrance and noticed a sign on the door; “ticket holding travelers only!” Not to draw too much attention to himself Nick stepped back, pulling his ticket out and waving it. One of the security guards saw it and waved him through. Nick had to push through, clutching his bags tight. As he got to the front of the crowd, a security guard pushed some people out the way. Flashing his ticket up a guard opened the door for him while the others held the crowd back.

  Mason

  Mason closed his eyes to try to get some sleep now that his wife had gotten Abby, their baby to sleep. Abby was their youngest daughter had been restless most of the flight from SeaTac airport in Washington. He figured now he could close his eyes and get some rest. The plane’s intercom speaker crackled as an announcement came from a male who must have been part of the crew in the plane’s cockpit.

  “Attention ladies and gentlemen! This is your captain speaking, unfortunately due to events out of our control we will not be making our scheduled layover stop in Minsk. I will keep you all updated as soon as I receive more information. Any passengers with Minsk as their final destination will be given transfers from the airport we touch down at. Thank you again for flying British Airways,”

  This stirred up quite a bit of excitement in the cabin as people began waving their hands around to attract the flight attendants attention. A lot of people began whipping out cell phones frantically trying to make calls. Mason just smiled to himself as he looked over at his wife Alex who was sleeping peacefully with their baby, Abby, on her chest.